Web-printing press



A. E. DOWELL.

WEB PRINTING PRESS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 20, 1918.

Patented Aug. 3, 1920.

INVEN TOR.

WI TNESS:

. account of the spring of the cylinders at THUR E. DOWEIQ, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

WEB-PRIN TING PRESS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 3, 1920.

Application filed November 20, 1918. Serial No. 263,329.

To all whom it may concern,-

Be it known that I, ARTHUR E. DowELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Washington, District of Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Improve ments in Web-Printing-Presses; and I hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact descriptionthereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification.

This invention relates to web printing presses and its object is to enable a plurality of say two-plate or page-wide presses to be arranged side by side and operatedas a unit, and simultaneously supplied with web from a roll of paper of greater width than each press, say a web four page wide being used and one-half of such web run through each press.

The invention is particularly designed for use with so-called single-page tubularlate presses of the type shown in Henry F. echmans Patent No.-867,230 dated October 1, 1907 in which tubular single-page plates are slipped endwise on or off the plate cylinders from one-side ofthe press. On account of the small diameter of the cylinders in such presses it has not been heretofore found desirable to mak such cylinders long enough to carry more than two plates or pages on hi h speed.

n order to print a four page wide web with such plates presses have heretofore been made with the plate cylinders staggered; sets of such perfecting mechanisms being arranged in zig zag arrangement on opposite sides of the axial line of the pressas shown inBechma-ns Patent No. 1,240,008 of September 11,1917 but while such presses Wlll successfully operate upon wide webs they require a reat deal of floor space, on account of t e peculiar arrangement of the printing mechanisms, but, heretofore, when single-page tubular-plate presses .of more I than '16'page capacity have beendesiredthis stagger d arrangement has been considered the best.

Another object ofthe present invention is to. enable two or more 16 single-page tu-.

bularrplate'presse's, or an two narrow or two page-wide presses,- to arranged close "together and, operated as one;thus economizing floor spac as vcompm'edfwith the staggered arrangement, and readil operable as one press, while having all 611 parts flexibility of the product readily accessible and doing away with any special construction of framing and the like, such as is required in the staggered presses.

This invention enables the capacity of a newspaper press room to beenhanced with much less cost to the owners and to utilize the old equipment as part of the new. When two such sixteen-page presses are arranged to be operated in accordance with my invention they can alsobe operated independently, if desired, to print a narrow web;

or simultaneously to print a three or four page wide web, according to the size of paper desired, thus greatly enhancing the as well as the capacity of the printing oflice.

While in the present invention a plurality of the narrow web presses are arranged side by side and simultaneously supplied with web from a wide web; each of such presses,

if desired, can be independently supplied with web from a narrow web roll; but in .that event the present invention would not be employed and its advantages would not be realized, one of which is' to dispense with the necessity of handling a large number of narrow webrolls.

I will explain the invention with reference to the'accompanying drawin s to enable others skilled 'in the art to a apt and use the same, and in the claims summarize the essential features and combination of parts for which protection is desired.

In said drawings:

- Figure 1 is a diagrammatical conventional top plan view of two two-page-wide rotar single-page tubular-plate web presses with means for supplying both presses from a wide roll of web. a

Fig. 2' is a front end elevation of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing Bechman, December 27, 1910; eachfhaving one or more decks of web perfecting mecha: nisms, the plate cylinders P in each. perfecting Inec anism therein being but two pages long, and adaptedto carry-two singlepage tubular-plates'arranged end to end and slipped endwi'se on and off the cylinders.

over one journal bearing thereof, and each platev cylinder coacting with its related ,im-

pression cylinder 1, all as explained in the aforesaid patents. Such presses being now well known in the art need no further detailed description herein.

Each press A is adapted to print only a two-page-wide web, and a sixteen page press of this type has two superposed decks of printing mechanism each containing two perfecting mechanisms, and a two page wide web is led to each printing mechanism in each deck to be printed thereby and thereafter assembled at a common folder.

As indicated in Fig. l the two presses A, A may be driven from. a common shaft, or have their driving shafts connected together by a suitable detachable connection, indicated at B, so that said two presses can be driven in unison; or they may be disconnected in case it is desired to operate only' one of them; such disconnectible drive may be of any suitable well known kind and does not require detailed illustratlon or explanation. I

Preferably I would arrange the presses A, A so that the gear sides of the pressesare adjacent each other, the gearing G thus coming between the presses, as indicated, so that it can readily be housed, if desired, and the operatives will not be endangered by the gearing.

Adjacent one end of the presses I provide supports R (of an. suitable kind) for a fourpage-wideweb the shaft of which roll is arranged parallel with the shaftsof the plate cylinders P in the presses; and the web may be unwound from the roll during the operation of the press, by any of the.

usual well known mechanisms (not shown). After passing from the web roll but before reaching the presses the web is divided by a slitter S; which may be constructed and operated in the usual well known manner, and each half 20 of the webmay thenbe passed under and over angularly disposed pairs of bars or rollers C and D by which the halves of the web are deflected laterally and separated a distance correspondin to the distance between the ends of the almed plate cylinders P, P in the adjacent presses; and in this way each half web w is brought into alinement with one of the presses.

From the bars or rollers D each half web is led to and through one of the perfecting mechanisms in the alined press, and is oper ated upon in such press ust the same as a single narrow web would have been operatedvupon if fed to such press from a two-v page-wide web roll in the manner described in said Patent No. 867,230. After passing through such presses the half webs may be turne over proper angle bars Z and directed to-either folder F of any desired jconstruction, adjacent the delivery ends of the resses and assembled and folded in the well own manner.

Instead of deflecting both halves of the web it would be possible to so locate the fourpage-wide roll, as indicated in Fig. 3, that one-half of the web could be led straight or directly from the roll into one ofv the parallel presses A; while the other half of such web would be deflected sufiiciently (by increasing the an le of the deflecting bars or rollers, as indicated at C and to bring the deflected half of the web parallel with the other half of the web and sufliciently spaced therefrom to enable it to be led directly from the deflector D into and %1rough the other press A as indicated in lnusing this invention the presses A, A must be operated synchronously and the web fed uniformly toboth presses from the wide web roll, the result then being the same as if the plate cylinders of the presses were four-page-wide.

. It will be understood that with this invention there should be as many web rolls as there are pairs of erfecting mechanisms in the two presses. n the drawings I have simply indicated one web roll supplying web to one perfecting mechanism in each press. a i

If it be desired to use only one press, they can be readily disconnected, and either one operated alone. And if one of the presses should be put out of commission by accident the other section can still be operated to print narrow webs while the injured section is being repaired.

This invention renders it a simple matter to increase the capacity of a press room by installing a second or duplicate press, or perfecting unit of a press, beside a previously installed press. For example, if a newspaper had a sixteen-page two-plate-- wide press installed, and it was desired to increase its capacity to thirt -two pages, it

would not be necessary to rep ace its sixteenpage press by a specially constructed thirtytwo-page press, but instead a duplicate sixteen-page press could be arranged beside the other and suitable web roll supports and deflectors provided, as above described, thus producing a thirty-two page outfit; utilizing therein allthe old equipment, but increasing the total page capacity to. thirty-two pages with little expense and delayas compared'with the installation of a new thirtytwo-page press.

Uniform tension on the sections of the web fed to the two presses can be readily obtained, if desired,by1 introducing suitable adjustable tension ro between the deflectors and the presses; such adjustable rollers being well known need no articular description or illustration.

' atIclaimis:

1. In printing apparatus of the character ers, indicated at T,

web printing presses arranged side by side; with means for supporting a wide roll of web adjacent one end of the presses, the axis of the web roll being parallel with the axes of the cylinders of the presses; means for slitting the web between the web roll and the presses; and means for separating the sections of the web while maintaining the same general direction of movement thereof away from the web roll and directing them to the printing mechanisms to be printed thereby. I

2. In printing apparatus of the character specified, the combination of two rotary web printing presses arranged side by side; with means for supporting a roll of web of greater width than the length of the cylin ders in either press adjacent one end of the presses so that the axis of the web roll is parallel with the axes of the plate cylinders of the presses; means for slitting the wide web between the web roll and the presses; and means for separating the sections of the web a distance corresponding to the separation of the presses while maintaining the same general direction of movement thereof away from the web roll, and directing the respective section of the web to the respective printing presses to be printed thereby.

3. In printing apparatus of the character specified, the combination of two rotary web printing presses arranged side by side with the gear side of each press adjacent the gear side of the other press; with means for supporting a wide roll of web with its axis parallel with the axes of the cylinders of the presses; means for slitting the web between the roll and the presses; and means for deflecting the sections of the web so as to separate same a distance corresponding to the separation of the presses, the respective sections of the web being directed to the respective printing mechanisms to be printed thereby.

4. In combination a plurality of twopage-wide rotary web printing presses arranged side by side; means for supporting a wide roll of web adjacent one end of such presses, the axis of the web roll being parallel with the axes of the cylinders in the presses; means for slitting the web between the web roll and the presses; and means for separating the sections of the web while maintaining the same general direction of movement thereof away from the web roll and directing them to the printing mechanisms to be printed thereby; with folding mechanism, adjacent the ends of the pressesmeans for slitting a wide web between the web roll and the presses; and means for separating the sections of the web while maintaining the same general direction of movement thereof away from the web roll and directing the respective sections of the web to the respective printing presses to be printed thereby; with folding mechanism located at the end of the presses opposite the web roll; and means for directing the" several printed sections of the web to such folding mechanism. .1

6. In combination two two-page-wide single-page-tubular-plate rotary web printing presses arranged side by side with the gear side of each press adjacent the gear side of the other press; means for supporting a wide roll of web at one end of such presses with the axis of the web roll parallel with the axes of the cylinders; means for slitting the web between the roll and the presses; and means for deflecting the sections of the web so as to separate same a distance corresponding to the separation of the presses, the respective sections of the web being directed to the respective printing mechanisms to be printed thereby; with a folding mechanism adjacent the ends of the presses opposite the web roll; and means for directing the several printed sectlons of the web to such folding mechanism.

In testimonythat I claim the foregoing as my own, I afiix in Si nature.

- ART U E. DOWELL. 

